How to Make the Healthiest Green Juice

Whether you're a daily green juice drinker or or can't stand the thought of drinking your veggies, you should read this post.  I had the chance to concoct the healthiest green juice with the Founder of Juice Generation, Eric Helms, who's reasons for juicing may make you want to start blending your own.  Here are his tips on how to create the perfect green juice no matter what your palette can handle.

"People have preconceived ideas about juicing being time consuming, expensive and messy, but if you have $20 a week, you can have a green juice ready in five minutes every day that won't taste like your front yard," Helms commented.

You can start slowly with spinach and apple, but as your palette adjusts you're going to want to go more and more green simply because of the way it makes you feel. "Unlike coffee, which gives you a spike in energy and then a crash, the energy you get from green juice is sustained throughout the day."  The greener you go, the more energy you'll get.

Step 1: Gather the Freshest Ingredients

We used 1 cucumber, romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, parsley, 2 celery stalks, a 1/2 an apple and a 1/4 of a lemon.  Depending on how much sugar you want to add, adding apples will help sweeten your juice.  Try adding two if you're starting out.  Lemon helps to cut the taste.  Again, depending on your palette and where you are in your green juice journey, you can add as much as you'd like.  When possible, buy organic because the skin isn't harmed by pesticides.

Step 2: Prep 

Clean all of your produce with cold water and a touch of vinegar to make sure its free of potential chemicals on the skin.  All of the nutrients in the greens are held in the leaves, so rid all of the stems and peel your lemon.  Keep the skin on the rest as it holds the most nutrients.  Don't worry about seeds from apples and lemons though, most juicers have strainers to catch them.

Step 3: Blend

The way you put your produce into your juicer matters.  Add the greens first (spinach, parsley, kale) and then add something that will juice like a cucumber to push it down.  Repeat this process.

Into it?  I thought you would be.  Besides sustained energy, green juice is also good for your skin, hair and nails.  For more recipes and advice check out Helms's new book, "The Juice Generation: 100 Recipes for Fresh Juices & Superfood Smoothies."

A Celeb Nutritionist Spills Her Secrets

I've always been into health and fitness, but recently a blogger friend, Sarah Conley, turned me onto green juice in the morning.  In her words, "it makes you vibrate."  I didn't quite understand what she meant until I tried it.  I've been drinking Naked Juice Green Machine, but was introduced to Kimberly Snyder who creates a green juice from scratch called the Glowing Green Smoothie and is the nutritionist to some of our favorite stars such as Drew Barrymore, Olivia Wilde and Channing Tatum and the author of The Beauty Detox.  Check out what she has to say: What inspired you to become a celebrity nutritionist?

I bring a unique perspective to my work in that I first traveled around the world for three years, to over 50 countries, and learned beauty and health secrets from cultures worldwide which look much younger and more vibrant than we do. I came back and became a clinical nutritionist, to get the scientific backup for my discoveries.

Because my program is so different than what’s out there, it attracted the attention of some actors looking to get in shape for a movie role. It worked out great, and I continued to meet other actors as word spread.

What type of nutritional advice did you give them?

No matter whom I’m talking to, I always start with explaining the basic principals of my program, which are outlined in Part 1 of the The Beauty Detox Solution. My philosophy shows the powerful link between beauty, health and energy. We all have this amazing potential within us, what I call Beauty Energy, and learning how to unlock it is the key to growing younger, slimming down easily and having abundant energy throughout the day.

Digestion can take up over half of our energy, so if we want to feel and look our best, we need to free up that energy from digestion and have it work for us and our health and beauty goals. I always emphasize that it’s not just the foods that we’re eating, but also the way we are eating our foods, which include the order and combination in which we eat.

What are your clients’ goals? Were they met?

My actors have the same goals that we all have. They want to have a slim, firm body, radiant, youthful skin and feel energetic all day.

The great news is that we can all achieve these goals by starting with our diet and building from the inside out! Since around 98% of our total bodies’ cells renew every year, if we start making positive changes today we will start to improve now and reverse much of the past damage, even if we haven’t eaten perfectly in the past.

What nutritional advice do you have for women in general about having a balanced diet?

My program is also about debunking myths, since so many people and women in particular focus on eating foods to lose weight…but those same foods are aging them at an accelerated rate. It shows up right on their face in the form of deepening lines and wrinkles, under-eye circles and dull skin. What good is it to be a size 6 or a size 2 if we look 10 years older than we really are?

We need to pay attention not just to micromanaging numbers- calories, grams of carbs, etc. but foster a more holistic approach to what’s really healthy, and how foods are digesting in the body. Every food we eat is either making us more acidic or more alkaline. When we are more alkaline we have an abundance of oxygen in our tissues and we become more beautiful. We know all the counting isn’t working- or otherwise why would dieting be a billion dollar industry? We also spend increasingly more money on makeup and beauty products in the hopes of replicating natural beauty. These products should enhance the inner beauty we all have within, not be a substitute for it.

Summer is right around the corner, what types of foods should women steer clear of and what types of foods should they embrace in order to look fab in their bikini?

My Glowing Green Smoothie is what I make for all my celebrity clients, and it is the fuel that will start to rejuvenate your skin, cleanse out aging and bloating toxins, and help you slim down for summer while still feeling great. It’s basically a blend of raw greens and ripe fruit, so what you taste is the sweetness of the fruit. It’s super easy, and one of the easiest things we can all every day to accelerate cleansing on a daily basis! You drink it in the morning, when our bodies are in “cleanse mode.”

Stay away from processed foods that are high in sodium and preservatives, as well as dairy. Try to reduce your consumption of highly allergetic foods that have digestive issues, which include soy and gluten. Lastly, cut out all artificial sugars and sweeteners, which are definitely not beautifying.